The Rule Book

...and being fully persuaded that ,what He

had promised, He was able to perform. 

And therefore it was imputed to him for

 righteousness. Now it was not written for 

his sake alone, that it was imputed to him;

 but for us also to whom it shall be imputed,

 if we believe on Him that raised up Jesus our 

Lord from the dead; who was delivered 

for our offences, and was raised again 

for our justification.

Romans 4:21-25 

     Question: What makes a football game and not a baseball game, or soccer, or basketball, or any other game? Some will say, the ball, or the uniform, or the playing field, or many other things and they would be wrong. A football game or any other game is by and only by the rules. Rules determine governments, or companies, and even religion. Every religion has its rules that determine the way the religion is performed. So also is this true about Christianity. To have rules they are either in the head of someone and dispensed by that one, which may change at any moment, or there is, and is most often rules that have been written down for anyone to read and perform: the rule book! Christianity has a rule book: The Bible! Who wrote the rules? This is an important question. Was it Muhammed, or Buddha, or Luther, or Calvin, or the apostle John, who? Furthermore, who is interpreting the rules? Is the interpretation according to what has been written down or just someone's presupposition or ideology, or theology? Before agreeing that the interpretation given to you there must be time taken to know who is saying what about the rules. What kind of person, what is his/her leaning as to various rules. Some will say the Bible allow for abortion, others say you must do this or that, some liturgy, or some practice and even give support by some proof rules. Oh! This is hard! Yes! But it is important to know these things for yourself, for your children, friends, and not be mislead into things that seem Biblical but are not. 

     The Bible is the rule book for Christians and it is full of writings from some 40 men at various times in history. Again: The Bible contains an account of a revelation from God to man and this is not found anywhere else: only from the Bible. The Bible is a way man can communicate with God for God had things written down, things revealed for you to read as if He were sitting down in front of you speaking. The Bible contains a message for all men starting with the fact that He is the rule maker, the rule book is His rule book for man and how He deals with man. The Bible is candid, not hiding anything, both the good things and the bad things, but more than just that, God reveals how He is in charge and that if a person plays by His rules then He will do something for them that they cannot do for themselves: Salvation! You do not discover salvation, although you can read about what God requires of a person who desires to be saved from their errors, their sin, no, you can read it and discover what God had written but this is only discovery. Salvation is something that happened. God recorded this happening for us and is found uniquely in the Bible, no where else. God states that by this happening salvation is now possible. Here is a problem when interpretation is allowed to run rampart and now follow what is written for us due to the many ideas, this complex ideas of man; no Christianity depends upon an event and the narration for us about this event. Without this event then man is lost under an eternal guilt of sin, life would be fatalistic, dark. Some men, preachers and teachers speak about finding some "key" to the Scriptures, that they have discovered something more, something better, yet salvation does not come be any discovery. Yes you can discover the rules but that does not save you. Discovery brings to a person that this life, this truth about life only brings despair, all because of sin, and man cannot remove their sins. Yes, you can live moral lives, but this has not remove you propensity to sin. The rule book, the revelation to us from God is more than just us discovering a dark world and bringing despair for it brings hope a new face on life all because of that one event, and event spoken about from the beginning of time. That event is when God offered up His Son, His Only Begotten Son on the cross. 

     The rule book, the Bible does you no good if it is not opened and read and finding that it is hard but simple: if the Bible says "do it!" Do It! If the Bible says "Do not do it," don't do it! What is greater than what you can even imagine except through a mirror, a dark mirror is that the rule maker, God, not only gives us the rules: He will aid you to keep the rules, to work with you until those rules are part of you. That is: if you let Him. Will you?

For thus saith the Lord God;

    Behold, I, even I, will both

search My sheep, and seek them out.

                    Ezekiel 34:11

Do you have the rule book? You can!

Richard L. Crumb